Mansa Musa: A Captivating Guide to the Emperor of the Islamic Mali Empire in West Africa and How He Developed Timbuktu into a Major Center for Trade by History Captivating

Author:History, Captivating
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7 – Mansa Resumes His Pilgrimage

“The people fasted for three successive days, the last of which was a Thursday. At the end of this period, the amirs, sharifs, qadis, doctors of the Law, and all other classes of the people in their several degrees, assembled in the Great mosque, until it was filled to overflowing with them, and spent Thursday night there in prayers and liturgies and supplications. Then, after performing the dawn prayer—they all went out together on foot carrying Qurans in their hands—the amirs too, barefooted. The entire population of the city joined in the exodus, male and female, small and large, the Jews went out with their book and the law and the Christians with their Gospel, their women and children with them; the whole concourse of them in tears and humble supplications, imploring the favor of God through his books and his prophets.”

-Ibn Battuta

Mansa Musa and his court left Cairo as the Egyptian summer turned to fall, staying for about three months in total. Mansa Musa left with just about as much fanfare as with which he had arrived, and the Egyptian people would not soon forget him. Mansa Musa and his companions soon crossed the Red Sea and entered Saudi Arabia itself. The sultan of Egypt had called ahead of his guest and made sure that special depots with additional provisions would be set up along the way.

The sultan had also made sure that military leaders in the region were aware that the pilgrimage was taking place and put out instructions that the pilgrims be carefully looked after. Compared to the struggle of crossing the Sahara Desert in North Africa, this well-provisioned and well-attended last leg of the journey was much easier. Before reaching Mecca, Mansa Musa and company made a stop in Medina, the town in which the Prophet Muhammad’s mortal remains rest.

Here, Mansa Musa visited the fabled Green Mosque, where both the prophet and a couple of the original caliphs—Abu Bakr and Umar—were entombed. It was shortly after Mansa Musa paid his respects in Medina that the caravan was able to make it to the outskirts of the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca—the main focal point of all of Islam. As Mansa Musa’s entourage approached, it was, once again, quite a spectacle for the locals to behold.

Mansa Musa’s mobile palace was a grand tent encampment, as Mansa Musa’s kingly tent was flanked by thousands of other tents for his followers. There were also countless pack animals carrying all manner of provisions, as well as gifts both received and those yet to be given. Mansa Musa’s own generosity when it came to gift-giving was quite well known by then.

Upon entering the city of Mecca, each one of these visitors had to buy a special pass or “visa” in order to enter the city. These passes worked much like a modern-day visa, allowing travelers to have temporary official permission to remain in the region. Once this was acquired, the pilgrims could pass freely into the great city of Mecca.

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